Supported projects

Col-OR is an interdisciplinary project combining high-resolution object study, archaeometric analyses, and historical interpretation to investigate technological innovations and cultural meanings of polychromy in Hellenistic goldwork produced along the south-Adriatic coast of Italy (3rd–1st century BC). This region, a major commercial hub shaped by multicultural Italo-Greek-Celtic communities, developed a distinctive corpus of Greek-style ornaments characterized by an expanded chromatic repertoire based on enamel, glass micro- beads, and gemstones. By focusing on a technically innovative yet under-studied production, including some experimentation of new enameling techniques on gold, Col-OR addresses a key methodological challenge in ancient jewelry studies: reconstructing provenance, production sequences, and workshop practices for objects that are frequently decontextualized and dispersed across international museum collections. The project adopts a comparative strategy combining securely dated archaeological jewelry from South Italy with museum-held pieces in Paris, notably at the Louvre and the Département des Monnaies, Médailles et Antiques de la BnF. A standardized technical protocol will document construction methods, settings, surface finishing, supported by macrophotography and optical microscopy. Non-destructive and quasi non-destructive analyses (PIXE–PIGE, LA-ICP-MS) will provide quantitative compositional data to investigate the provenance and technology of glass, enamel, gemstones and glass stones, and gold, including the potential identification of early glass recycling and long-distance supply networks. Finally, polychromy is examined as a cultural, sometimes ritual and multisensory language, correlating chromatic choices with style, iconography, social display, and ancient textual terminology of color.